Can a doctor of psychology also be called a psychiatrist?

Answer

Anyone who follows a doctoral training program after university and completes a doctorate (research dissertation), graduates as a ‘doctor’ in a specific discipline. It is therefore possible that after completing a master’s degree in psychology or master’s degree in medicine, someone can still follow a doctoral training program and thus become a doctor of psychology or medicine/psychology. So the word ‘doctor’ here has a very specific meaning, which is not the same as a ‘doctor’. The latter has a degree in medicine, but does not necessarily have to have completed a doctorate.

Furthermore, it is also quite possible that someone has, for example, first completed a master’s degree in psychology and then studied medicine (or vice versa). And if he has a PhD, then this person is a psychologist, as well as a doctor (who may have specialized in psychiatry) and a doctor.

To answer your question very specifically: A doctor of psychology can only be called a psychiatrist if he has also studied medicine and has completed the specialization in psychiatry.

‘Professor’ is the name for a professor (independent academic staff or ZAP for short): it is someone who is affiliated with the university and has a research and teaching assignment there. A condition for becoming a professor at a Flemish university is that one has obtained a doctorate.

What we often see happen in newspaper articles is that an author does not use the correct name. A person is then referred to as a psychiatrist, although he is a psychologist or vice versa. There is a real chance that a hasty author/journalist has not done his homework sufficiently and has used the wrong title.

More information about doctorate: www.doctorereninvlaanderen.be